TIMOR Leste’s independence struggle veteran Mau Buti spent 24 years as a guerrilla fighter living in the mountains.

Last week Mr Buti mingled with Australian students and veterans as he and 30 Timorese veterans accompanied his country’s President-elect Francisco Guterres on a visit to Queensland to strengthen veteran ties and take part in Anzac Day commemorations.

In Brisbane’s Anzac Square last Monday, he met Australian students who marvelled at him and several of his veteran companions, when they were told of the struggle Timorese guerrillas endured in a long and dangerous occupation by Indonesia. (more…)

New Timorese president will lead veterans’ delegation at Anzac Day services in Brisbane

THE newly-elected president of Timor Leste, former guerilla fighter Francisco Guterres, will lead a 30-person delegation of veterans to Brisbane this Anzac Day.

President Guterres, a Catholic, was a commander during a two decades-long armed struggle against Indonesia, which invaded Timor Leste in 1974.

The visit by Timorese war veterans to participate in Anzac activities honours the commitment of Australian troops supporting the people of Timor Leste – both in the Second World War and since 1999 when Australian troops have helped restore civil order after a fractious vote for independence. (more…)

A LEADING clinical psychologist has praised the “quality healing” of the rehabilitation program Timor Awakening, which is helping veterans deal with PTSD, substance abuse, isolation and thoughts of committing suicide.

Brisbane-based Dr John Barletta, who volunteered as a consultant on the Timor Awakening program, said “it has been inspiring to see veterans and leaders connect, support, guide, challenge, and educate one another” and “regain a sense of worth in their lives”.

The one-year program, led by Deacon Gary Stone and the Veterans Care Association with support from RSL Queensland, includes an innovative immersion experience for veterans in Timor Leste, a country where many younger veterans have served.

Greater support for veterans has been identified as a national priority to deal with PTSD, depression, anxiety, and alcohol and substance abuse, as well as a staggering suicide rate amongst the veteran community.

“The veterans, though wounded in certain ways, have been quite willing and able to use their relative strengths to be future-focused, and work on integrating their learnings from Timor Awakening to change their lives toward greater health and wellbeing,” he said.

Dr Barletta said veterans visiting Timor Leste (for most, many years after they served there) were able to see that their efforts “amidst the pain and destruction and suffering” had resulted in change and created hope in people’s lives.

“Even on the very first day in Dili, our veterans were able to say ‘what I did was worth something’,” he said.

“For a lot of the veterans the most powerful thing was seeing children, bathed and well clothed and learning in schools. This is the next generation in Timor, and it really touched our guys to see their contribution as servicemen had helped create this.

“It is part of our existential life to be in the service of others. It’s an achievement – part of living a full life.”

Joyous: Deacon Gary Stone handing out school supplies in Timor Leste

Dr Barletta said for many veterans, medically discharged after their national service, each day was a challenge.

“How do we get them engaged?” he said, noting that it was often a cultural struggle for veterans to blend back into Australian life.

In his talks to veterans, Dr Barletta said he explained it was their responsibility to build in positive experiences each day including an exercise regime, attending to their psychological and relationship wellbeing, developing hobbies and voluntary work.

“And I would say ‘this stuff is not going to happen by miracle. You can cross your fingers, you can pray’. Hope is wonderful, but at the end of the day hope is not a strategy. There needs to be a plan,” he said.

“What you need to put in the cross-hairs are routine patterns and habits – because when you do the life-giving stuff, that becomes the new normal. And that fills the neural pathways to your brain – through the routines, repetition and deliberate practice.”

Dr Barletta said part of the challenge of suicide prevention is harnessing the “grit, determination and ‘stickability’ which military personnel develop through their service and having those dimensions come to the fore in their civil life.”

Dr Barletta said he would continue to work with the Veteran Care Association team, which consisted of two psychologists, a nurse, as well as Deacon Stone and his son Michael Stone, a former army major.

“Let me reiterate … I believe that the program has sound psychological underpinnings, and with further work will be even more proficient at catering to the complex needs of veterans,” Dr Barletta said.

Our next VCA gathering day is on Sat 1 April at Mates4Mates Milton at 1000

One of our recent Timor Awakening participants has said : “This has been the best experience of my life.” Another reported: “ This has provided me more help than all of the clinicians I have seen over many years.”

With feedback such as this we are encouraged that the model we are developing in Veterans Health is not just helping the individuals we are directly engaging with , but also will change the broader approach offered to all veterans. We are about promoting a wellness model of living, rather than enduring a sickness model of treatment. We are seeking to provide hope and restore people who have been labelled “totally and permanently incapacitated” to a level of health and wellbeing that is joyful and generative, empowering them to see a future life purpose.

We especially thank Pat Mc Intosh and RSL Care for the substantial financial support they have given this year to enable us to continue to deliver our programmes and engage professional clinical staff to supplement our volunteers. They are now our major sponsor and we proudly sing their praises for many initiatives in supporting veterans and families around Australia and for trusting us. RSL Qld and Knights of the Southern Cross remain as sponsors and we are grateful for their ongoing support.

We thank Michael Stone and his team for delivering Timor Awakening 3, which built on learnings from our two previous programmes, and will see further adjustments with TA4 spending 3 fulldays on Atauro Island focussing on health education, more sharing and more physical exercise options. The Prime Minister of Timor Leste, Dr Rui Arujo is going to join us for this time, so supportive is the Timorese Govt of what we are doing ! Look up our many pictures on Facebook page Timor Awakening.

Back at base, at 2 Victoria Park Road Kelvin Grove , we have joyfully welcomed psychologists Kaye Adams and Phoebe Cooper to our Pastoral Team, coordinated by Kirsten Wells. We now have first class response capacity, record keeping, and programme evaluation in place. CPA accountant Wayne Robson is supporting Geoff Fry and Col Ahern in our governance team and we are in process of managing all our finances onto the XERO system, giving instant visibility and accountability of all we do.

Our next VCA gathering day is on Sat 1 April at Mates4Mates facility in Douglas St Milton starting at 1000, and including lunch at 1200. We will be providing an overview of VCA developments, hearing feedback from TA3 participants, briefing TA4 participants departing on 30 Apr, awarding Quilts of Valour, and making welcome participants hoping to deploy on TA5 in July.

We continue to be inspired to engage in this ministry as it is truly a Good Samaritan activity, in the words of Jesus, “bringing Good News to the afflicted, proclaiming liberty to captives, bringing new sight to the blind, and setting the downtrodden free.”

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My God bless you all and may you celebrate the new life that Easter proclaims.

“Timor-Leste is a country that is peaceful, unexplored, rich in culture and a significant shared history with the Australian Military. It’s a country full of veterans and civilians that have suffered unimaginable atrocities, hardship, trauma and oppression; a people who have exhibited incredible resilience, reconciled with their foes and are moving forward,” described Michael Stone of Veterans Care.

“We can be very proud of our military intervention since INTERFET, and we are honoured to provide our veterans the opportunity to be inspired from the healing and rehabilitation the Timorese veterans provide us; to move forward with hope and purpose.”

Timor Awakening is much more than an 11-day experience through East Timor. As veterans found on the two tours conducted this year, it is an opportunity to heal from the emotional and mental wounds of their service. The tour through eight Districts enables veterans to see first-hand how far the communities impacted by war have come following the restoration of peace, in part thanks to Australia’s Defence personnel.

Last surviving Timorese who was forced labour to dig the Japanese Munitions Storage and air raid shelter tunnels south of Baucau. Image Source: RSL News

Presidents Report to AGM for FY 15/16

This last 12 months has seen a most significant increase in the range and number of services provided to veterans and their families by VCA . This has occurred as a result of the development of the Timor Awakening Programme, and significant funding support from RSL Care , RSL Qld and Knights of the Southern cross as well as a range of other donors. But the actual service delivery has been facilitated by many generous volunteers who are members of VCA .

VCA was established to raise the level of health of the veteran community and we have definitely been doing that primarily through pastoral care and holistic health education. Approximately 1000 people have received holistic health education sessions in the FY , and we have had an average of 30 pastoral interventions every week in that same period. This will remain our frontline activity. (more…)

Former Army Warrant Officer Nick , considers the title Timor Awakening a most apt title for the 11 day experience he had in Timor in September 2016 . “ It was real awakening to me of the possibilities of healing. My partner has noticed a huge change in me since I came home. I’ve had the chance to put some demons behind. A huge thanks to the VCA team of Michael Stone, Gary Stone, Kirsten Wells, Bob Breen, Merryn Thomae and Wayne Smith who have facilitated this journey for us.”

Former AFP agent Mark says “ I have been able to purge an issue that has affected my life and career for the last 12 years since I served in Timor. This experience has resolved a major life issue, that years of counselling was unable to do.” (more…)

By Associate Professor Bob Breen.

I am a veteran managing depression. For many veterans like me, mental illness is a private nightmare that becomes a public humiliation as well as a disaster for loved ones. The consequences include relationship breakdown, substance abuse, unemployment and suicide. I have been publicly humiliated by my illness. I am divorced. I have lost my job. I am managing my illness much better now and have another job. I am writing to share the effects of the Timor Awakening program on me and others.

After 40 years in uniform, finishing as a Colonel, I have re-joined a brotherhood and sisterhood once again with the common purpose of fighting our mental illnesses by helping each other. Timor Awakening is a high-risk program that reaches out to mostly high-risk veterans. I participated in the first Timor Leste immersion experience in July 2016. The program design was sound and veterans, especially some who had ‘closed down’ in despair, completed the 11-day program strengthened and committed to getting well again, knowing that they were not alone in the ongoing battle. They rediscovered mateship on the roads of Timor Leste and were both inspired and strengthened by the stories of resilience from Timorese Resistance veterans who accompanied them. (more…)

DEACON Gary Stone and his team from Veterans’ Care Association work around a lounge room table, in a Kelvin Grove house that doubles as an office and a drop-in centre.

Deacon Stone is chaplain to the veteran and ex-services community, and since VCA was set up 18 months ago, there’s been a rapidly growing demand for their services, which include holistic health education and individual assistance.

The work has expanded to include caring for families of veterans in crisis.

Brisbane archdiocese has the highest concentration of veterans in Australia, with 70,000 living here, or approximately 25 per cent of all veterans nationally, and from Department of Veteran Affairs figures, 35,000 of these experience some form of disability as a result of their service.

Today, 30,000 young veterans from recent conflicts live in the archdiocese, and for many of this group healing the unseen wounds of war and settling back into civilian life and family settings presents a daily struggle.

Almost every week one young veteran commits suicide.

The CVA team of veterans Deacon Stone, his son Michael, Veterans services co-ordinator and ex-army nurse Kirsten Wells and RAAF provisional psychologist, Dianne Rogers, are preparing a shortlist of participants for the next veteran trip to East Timor, part of a holistic health intervention program for veterans taking aim at post traumatic stress disorder.

Deacon Stone speaks about the program called Timor Awakening, which is funded by RSL Queensland.

It’s a year-long holistic health and wellbeing program for veterans, with a 10-day trip to East Timor as its centrepiece.

The trip builds camaraderie between veterans, offers care and support, and engagement with the Timorese people, especially their own former guerrilla fighters and veterans.

The feedback from more than 40 participants during two trips so far has been overwhelmingly positive.

Former infantryman, Kev Neal from Warwick posted this reflection on social media: “… finally see how our help has let this country grow and develop into the free and happy country it is.”
“… on my trip made it easier for me to get the closure and the feeling of accomplishment from my service in Timor Leste.”

Deacon Stone said the program was open to anyone who has served in the military or police.

That includes Vietnam veterans – the group which first brought PTSD to the attention of the Australian public, including the high rates of ex-service suicides compared to the general population.

“Timor is just the setting for the circuit breaking part of the program. So using a history that goes beyond any contemporary veterans – including Vietnam veterans,” he said.

“To my mind the essential issue is hope. For a long time veterans and their families have felt despair and abandonment because the treatment arrangements for them have not delivered desired outcomes.

“Classic medication or cognitive behavior therapy is not helping most people. We have a more comprehensive range of treatments, most of which is called psycho-social – people helping people.

“It’s the good Samaritan story – one wounded digger helping another. It gets people going.

“We’ve cottoned on to a holistic approach of treatment delivered by veterans themselves which has been well received and is reaching some positive consequences for them.”

The resources come from RSL Queensland, with the program developed and delivered by VCA and Deacon Stone – who draws on his own extensive military service in overseas campaigns including Iran-Iraq, East Timor, Bougainville, the Asian tsunami, Solomon Islands and East Timor.

Son Michael Stone is a former army major, who was considered the army’s “fix it” man in East Timor.

“Ex service people will listen to other ex-service people. Michael and I both got diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress, we’ve been in the dark hole so we know what it is like for them, whereas if they go to a civilian psychologist or psychiatrist and they don’t reveal what is really going on, they don’t trust them or they are not ready to reveal,” Deacon Stone said.

“It is the coming back, the reintegrating into life that’s difficult.

“Veteran suicide happens when they haven’t got hope. Either they are not in touch with God, or feel they can’t be forgiven.

“I tell them ‘God loves you’ and you can be forgiven.

“God made you for a purpose, and you have purpose yet. There’s nothing God can’t do.”

Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge is an enthusiastic supporter of the Veterans Care Association.

He has encouraged every Catholic agency, parish and school to find ways to honour veterans and their families during DVA Veterans Health Week which runs from October 23-30.

There will be a Veterans Health Week Stall in the grounds of St Stephens Cathedral on Tuesday, October 25 from 11am to 2pm.

Article written by Mark Bowling. It was featured on the Catholic Leader Website 24/10/16 Click here to see the original article.

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About Us

Veterans Care Association was set up to support returning veterans and their families to overcome Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other challenges in returning to civilian life. We give practical, direct support to our wounded, injured and sick… We act as a central hub for Veteran Services, bringing together traditional medical practitioners, complimentary/holistic practitioners, therapists, counsellors and more to support your journey to good health and vitality.